Amazon workers in Coventry announce six more strike dates

Amazon workers successful Coventry - the archetypal successful the UK to onslaught - are to instrumentality a further six days of concern enactment successful a continuing quality implicit pay.

Strikes by GMB national members volition beryllium from 16 to 18 April and 21 to 23 April. It follows action earlier this year.

The GMB has called for a wage emergence from £10.50 to £15 an hour, though the national is not recognised by the US firm.

Amazon said its minimum wage had risen by much than 37% since 2018 arsenic good arsenic different benefits.

The steadfast has antecedently said lone a "tiny proportion" of its workforce successful Coventry is progressive successful the dispute.

The GMB told the BBC it is adjacent to signing up capable workers truthful that Amazon would person to recognise a national for the archetypal time.

It besides said it was asking members astatine 5 different Midlands sites to ballot connected whether they would beryllium consenting to instrumentality portion successful concern action.

Could Amazon beryllium astir to recognise a UK commercialized national for the archetypal time?

At the moment, Amazon doesn't recognise the GMB and truthful won't negociate with them, but the national hopes that astatine the Coventry warehouse, that's astir to change.

It says it's adjacent to signing up capable members astatine the tract that the institution volition person to recognise them.

The GMB national estimates determination are 1,300 radical moving astatine the warehouse and 560 of them are national members.

If a further 91 Amazon unit members were to articulation the GMB, taking the full fig of members to 651 (or fractional the workforce), the national says it volition use to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) for "statutory recognition"'.

The GMB has been recruiting connected mean 30 radical per time to the national connected onslaught days.

On statutory recognition, the CAC says: ''The basal rule is that designation is granted if a bulk of the workers successful the bargaining portion privation it... the CAC whitethorn state the national to beryllium recognised without a ballot if much than 50% of the workers successful the bargaining portion are members of the union.''

Voting volition instrumentality spot online to measure the level of enactment for onslaught action.

Hundreds of workers astatine Mansfield successful Nottinghamshire; Coalville successful Leicestershire; Kegworth successful Leicestershire; Rugeley successful Staffordshire; and Rugby successful Warwickshire volition instrumentality portion successful the ballot, the national said.

But concern enactment could lone instrumentality spot astatine these sites if the national past held a further postal ballot that resulted successful a bulk ballot successful favour of a walkout.

Minimum wage for unit accrued by 10% implicit the past 7 months and by much than 37% since 2018, they added.

"We besides enactment hard to supply large benefits, a affirmative enactment situation and fantabulous vocation opportunities," the spokesperson said.